Bicycles are often parked in a home garage. They can be hung on a garage wall or from the ceiling to keep floor space open, but that is somewhat inconvenient, particularly for children. For this reason, it is preferable to leave a bicycle on the garage floor.
Kickstands are usually used to park a bicycle on the garage floor, but the bicycle can easily fall over. A falling bicycle can knock over other bicycles, and can fall on autos and other things, causing damage. Also, a parked bicycle can be disturbed when someone moves another bicycle between a car and the parked bicycle. Thus, there is a need for improved apparatus for storing a bicycle on a garage floor.
Bicycle racks are used to store bicycles in school yards, parks and other places. Bicycle racks conveniently support several bicycles, but they are not suitable for home garages because there is not enough space for them, particularly along the sides of a car, and the bicycles cannot be parked generally parallel to the garage wall. Thus, there is a need for bicycle racks which can be used in narrow spaces such as the area between the inside wall of a garage and a parked automobile. There is also a need for bicycle racks which allow a bicycle to be parked generally parallel to the wall.
Bicycles are often stored during cold winter months, and of course a garage floor must be cleaned from time to time. A conventional bicycle rack in a garage would obstruct the open floor space in the garage, even when the bicycles were stored. Such a bicycle rack would also interfere with cleaning the garage. Thus, there is also a need for bicycle racks which can be retracted when not in use, to create open floor space for other purposes, and for easy cleaning of the garage floor.
Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide new and improved apparatus for storing bicycles in garages and the like.
Another object is to provide new and improved bicycle racks.
Still another object is to provide new and improved bicycle racks which can be conveniently attached to a wall in a garage or the like.
A further object is to provide new and improved bicycle racks which allow a bicycle to be parked on a floor more parallel than perpendicular to an adjacent wall, if desired.
Yet another object is to provide new and improved bicycle racks which can be retracted when not in use.